Who shot the dog? Family seeks whoever wounded pet

A sign posted outside the home of Richard Jay gets the message across. He’s looking for the person who shot his family’s dog. And he’s angry.

Ed Balint

A sign posted outside the home of Richard Jay gets the message across.

He’s looking for the person who shot his family’s dog. And he’s angry.

Written on an old door and attached to a utility pole, the sign reads: “REWARD $100 FOR INFO AND NAME OF THE PIECE OF (EXPLETIVE)! WHO SHOT OUR DOG.”

Jay said the dog was shot about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Jay’s son, Ricky, 10, had taken the dog outside. The boy was trying to latch the dog to a cord stretched between two trees in the yard -- a “runner,” the father said.

But the dog ran off. Ricky chased after the pooch. The dog disappeared over a hill near the boy’s home.

About two minutes later, Shadow returned, Ricky recalled Friday. Ricky soon noticed that his dog’s right hind leg was wounded. Ricky said he never heard a gunshot. The father believes the bullet fragment is from a .22-caliber rifle or possibly a higher-powered rifle.

Shadow, a female German shepherd mix, is playful and does not bite people, Richard Jay said.

“It wasn’t a BB gun or a pellet gun to scare (the dog) away,” he said. “They shot to kill.”

Jay filed a report Friday with the Stark County Sheriff’s Department.

Surgery was performed on the dog’s leg. Fragments of a bullet were removed, Richard Jay said, holding one of them in his hand Friday.

Jay and his wife, Jill, are shocked the dog was shot. It’s not hunting season, Richard Jay said. And even if it were, wooded areas are not close enough to the neighborhood for a stray bullet to have hit the dog, he said.

The father also rules out target practice. He has no doubt Shadow was shot on purpose. He hopes the sign leads to tips. He has knocked on doors at about a dozen homes in the area trying to track down the culprit.

“If I catch (the shooter), I’ll prosecute,” Jay said.

About three months ago, the family took in the dog after it was found stray in their neighborhood.

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